Desperate Parenting

{iPhone photo}

If you're having a crazy week, and decide to take your kids grocery shopping in their pj's at 8:15 am (because your third grader missed the bus and that's the state you drove her to school in) - then the best way to disguise it, is by putting on their jackets and cramming them into one of the new "car carts" the store just purchased.


They'll love it and will be so cute, no one will notice (or care) about their disheveled appearance.

Where The Wild Things Are

Do NOT go and see this movie. It's terrible.

Especially don't take your kids.

Visually beautiful - the wild things and their land were wonderful and I liked Max's costume too.

Story = awful.

I LOVE this book - and I think they completely ruined the spirit of it.

In the book Max gets out of control (I have a young son, I get it.) He needs an escape from his world (who doesn't.) Then, he MISSES it. He sails home to the restrictions and rules because it also means a warm and loving family who understand him. A great life lesson and one that I hope all my children learn.

I think they completely missed the whole point of the book with this one - and my hopes for a future family Halloween theme of Jake as Max and all of us as Wild Things have been dashed.

Lightsaber Cake

For Jacob's birthday he wanted a "lightsaber cake."

I have to say, this is one of the easiest cakes I've ever made, but it was still impressive because of it's size. I made two sheet cakes and cut them each in half longways.
Jane helped. She loves cakes, can you tell?

 
I bought a board at home depot, because I didn't think cardboard would support it.
I covered the plank with foil and put the cake pieces end to end.

Then I rounded one end, and tapered the length of it out to the handle.
Blue and grey frosting and some candy embellishments for buttons.

Too bad this year was one for a "family"party and not friends - this was a lot of cake!

 

One happy little birthday Jedi!

Five

Jacob turned five today, and I can hardly believe that I am even typing that. Where has that baby boy gone??? Maybe I feel his aging more keenly as he is my only son. Just one "go around" of all things little boy for us!

Here's all you need to know about Jacob -

Nicknames - Jake or Big J.

Middle Name - Robert. A middle name he shares with his Grandpa, who also shares his birthday.  

Favorite Color - Orange. (Blue is a close second.)

Favorite Food - EVERYTHING! If I had to pick one - shrimp. No, sushi rolls. OK, Mangoes. Or Haagan Dasz Mango sorbet. This kid loves food way too much to just pick one thing!!

Favorite Animal - That's tough. Sharks and Rays tie for first place. He's pretty crazy about octopi too. He really just loves any ocean animal. And dogs. Oh and worms. That's probably it.

Best Physical Feature - His hair. I LOVE it. Definitely the best in our family. It's so thick and smooth and shiny - unusual for such a blondie. I also think his height and upper body strength will probably serve him well as he gets older.

Siblings - Man, is this kid tender with his three sisters.
Rebekah just thinks that he is the coolest little boy on the planet (still not allowed to take pics of her), and the other two adore him too. Jane follows him in everything he does and while he and Emily have their fair share of run-ins (mostly over space & belongings) they play and wrestle and love to hang out together. He is always "snuggling" them.

(Thanks Jeff T., for this picture.)

BFF - Colin Stanley! He still isn't over the fact that Colin and his family moved 18 months ago. Either am I for that matter. We've done a pretty good job at getting our families together every 6 months. These boys still adore each other, so we're going to have to keep it up. (I'm secretly hoping they'll end up being missionary companions someday.)

 Favorite Holiday - Halloween. The kid is crazy about Trick-or-Treating and costumes and all the spooky decorations we put up. He has loved pumpkins since he was super little, and I think that it doesn't hurt that it comes not long after his birthday. I think in his mind, Halloween is kind of an extension of  his birthday.

Talents - Should I be ashamed that he is awesome at video games?

 

Favorite Thing To Do - Play with friends! I have never met a more social child. He loves to have friends over. He asks kids in line at the grocery store for their phone number so we can call them to arrange a play-date. A day is just not complete for this guy unless he's visited a friend.

Who He's Going to Marry - Definitely Stella (next door) - he tells me all the time. I'm still holding out hope that he'll marry my friend Melissa's daughter so Missy and I can be related! But if he end up marrying Stella, I'll be delighted too because she's super cute.

Favorite  Movie - Star Wars. Hands down. 

Favorite Toys - He really, really loves Lego's.

Favorite TV Show - Magic School Bus. He's crazy about this show. Seriously, this boy spent the first 4 yrs and 10 months of his life NOT watching TV. A good thing in the long run, but tough on the Mom if she needs to shower or take her eyes off the kid for a second without disaster befalling her!  He watches it in the morning now while I exercise, and I'm pretty happy that he's learning from it too! 

MY Favorite Thing About Jacob -  Jacob is a tactile boy. One of the ways this translates is that he likes to play with my hair. I LOVE having my hair played with! He mostly does it when he's mellow - or bored. He'll crawl into my lap and run his fingers through my hair. He's done it since he was a baby.

Happy Birthday Buddy! We LOVE having you in our family.

Newest Fish

Not to be outdone by her older sister, Jane earned her "fish" badge a few days after Emily got her shark. (Thanks for setting such a good example, Emily!)

The fish is the first of the stroke badges, and is awarded for being able to swim across the pool completely unassisted.

 She was pleased with herself, but also just wanted a cracker!

 

It was a tough day for Jacob, who has been working towards his Octopus badge, and didn't get it (they just do one "badge week" a month.) After a little consoling, he was really cute and excited for her - and kept telling everyone we saw all day that Jane had earned it.

Way to go super little swimmer! (I knew you were a fisha l along.)

Great White Shark

Emily started swimming at Aqua Tots in February of 2005,  just after she had turned 4.

She has LOVED swimming there, and as been really well taught. This fall she was ready to move on to a competitive swim team, and she has.

There's a badge system of reward / progress measurement at Aqua Tots, and Emily had one badge left to go. Her butterfly wasn't quite good enough to earn her shark last spring - so she returned to Aqua Tots in addition to her other swim team to get her last badge - her Great White Shark.

Here's what she had to be able to do -

These students have achieved all of the above badge levels.

They must have the correct racing pull (bent elbow when their arm enters
the water, extend and pull back) for front crawl.  In addition he / she must have the correct timing for
backstroke and full breast stroke with its’ proper timing (pull, breathe, kick, glide) and can now demonstrate each of those skills for 250 yards (10 laps of our pool).  In addition they now are able to demonstrate the sidestroke & the entire butterfly stroke for 15 to 25 yards (it must have the correct timing and kick).  They must also be able to dive from the starting block and they must know all of their racing turns.

Well, she did it.

Did anyone doubt she would?

She also earned her alligator badge - which is one of the "safety badges" (the shark is a stroke badge.)

 

Emily is very goal oriented & will work hard to be sure she achieves what she wants. We are SO proud of her. This was a hard badge to get and she worked steadily at it.

Em, that tenacity will serve you well in life - keep it up!